Garment hanger



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GARMENT' HANGER Filed March 7, 1938 Patented July 8, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GARMENT HANGER.

` Frank P. Mies, Chicago, Ill. Y Application March 7, 1938, serial No. 194,310 claims. (o1. 22a- 93) This invention relates to garment hangers and has for its object to provide a new and improved device of this description.

The invention has as a further object to provide a garment hanger upon which the garment can be easily and quickly placed and which holds the garment so as to prevent it from falling off or from being accidentally displaced. The invention has as a further object to provide a garment hanger which will releasably hold the garment in position by means of pressure applied thereto.

The invention has further objectswhich' are more particularly pointed out in the accompanying description.

Referring now to the drawing, Y

Fig. 1 is a side view of one form of -garment hanger embodying the invention, showing a' garment thereon, with parts broken away;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged View of one of the garment engaging parts shown in Fig. 1, with parts brokenY oi 'the garment enpart of Fig. 6 in its released position and with parts broken away; and

Fig. 8 is a top view of the connection between the garment engaging part and its support.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several gures.

Referring now to the drawing, I have illustrated in Figs. 1 to 5 one form of device embodying the invention. In this construction, there is a garment holding member I upon which the garment is placed, a portion of the garment being slipped over the ends of the garment holding member. There is a support 2 separated from the garment holding member, but attached thereto in any desired manner, as by the attaching members 3 and 4. There are a plurality of garment engaging members 5 and 6 which are movably connected with the support 2 in any desired manner. As herein shown, these garment engaging members are provided with arms I and 8 which are pivoted by pivots 9 to the support 2.

Some suitable means is provided for causing the garment engaging members to move to engage the garment and clamp it between the garment engaging members and the garment holding member I. This may be done, for example, by having the garment engaging members of such weight that when released, they will drop and engage the garment. To insure proper movement of these garment engaging members, I may provide a spring to move them to their garment engaging positions. As herein shown, there is illustrated one form of such spring which consists of a coil II with the end portions I2 and I3. The coil II is coiled around the pivot 9, the end I3 extending into the support 2 and the end I2 extending into the arm '1. The support 2 is slotted or cut away as at lil, to permit the arm 1 to move upwardly to release the garment. It will be seen that when the garment engaging device is moved toward the support 2 to release the garment, the spring will be energized and when the garment engaging member is released, it will automatically return to engage the garment and clamp it to the garment holding member I.

To facilitate the use of the spring the end of the supporting member 2 is slotted as shown at I5 and the end of the arm 'l is slotted as shown at I5, the pivot 9 passing through the material of the support 2 and the arm 'I near the outer 4 ends of the slots.

Some means is preferably provided for holding the garment engaging members in their inoperative positions. For this purpose, I have shown the sliding parts I'I on the support 2, with connecting devices I8 connecting them to the garment engaging members. The sliding parts I 'I and connecting parts IB may be of any suitable kind. I prefer, however, to have the parts I8 flexible, as, forV example, by making them of chains.

VThere is a hanging hook I9 connected with the device by means of which the garments may be hung in any place desired. It will be seen that by moving the sliding part I'I toward the hanging hook IS, as shown on the left in Fig. 1, the garment engaging member will be held away from the part I and in an inoperative position. When the member I is moved toward the end of the support 2, as shown on the right in Fig. 1, the garment engaging member 5 is in its oper- .ative position and is free to be moved out of contact with the garment and when released, will move back into contact with the garment.

In Figs. 6, 7 and 8 I have shown a modified construction wherein the garment engaging members may be moved to an inoperative position and will be held in this inoperative position by the same spring that presses them toward the garment holding member I. To secure this result in the particular construction shown, the arm 'I is provided at the end with the projections 2@ and ZI and the support 2 is provided with the projections 22 and 23. These projections are pivotally connected together by separate pivots 24 and 25, the inner ends of which are separated by a space. The spring is shown as a coil spring 26 having one end connected at 2l' with the arm 'I and the other end connected at 28 with the support 2. When the arm I is moved toward the garment holding member I, the spring 26 presses it in contact therewith and in contact with the garment thereon. When it is desired to release the garment, the garment engaging device and arm I are moved up so that the garment engaging device is on the other side of the support 2, as shown in Fig. 7. When in this position, the spring 25 has passed the center of rotation of the arm and then acts to hold the arm in its inoperative position, as shown in Fig. 7.

The Vends of the support 2 are preferably arranged so that they will not engage and injure the garment as the garment isl placed in position. Any suitable means for this purpose may be used. As herein shown, I have curved the ends so that as a garment, when being placed on the hanger, strikes them, it will be guided down into the right position and so that there will be no injury to the garment striking these ends. When the support is a solid rod, the end is simply turned down as shown at 29. When it has the slots in the ends, as shown in Figs, 2 to 8, the two portions 29 on the opposite sides of the slots are turned up into a loop form as shown.

The attaching members 3 and 4 may be of any desired form. I prefer to have one end threaded and entering a threaded hole in the associated part and iitting loosely in a hole in the other part. In this event the parts I and 2 are held in their properly spaced position by the nut on the end of the hook I2 and enlargement of the hook I 2 above the part 2. This enlargement may have a rubber cover.

I have described in detail aparticular construction embodying the invention, but it is of course evident that the parts may be varied in many particulars without departing from the spirit of the invention as embodied in the claims hereto appended and I therefore do notrlimit myself to the particular construction shown.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows.

When it is desired to support a garment upon the garment hanger, the ends of the garment holding member are placed in beneath the top portions of the garment, as shown in Fig, 1. This can be done when the garment engaging members are in their operative positions, as shown on the right in Fig. 1, by simply slipping the garment under the garment engaging mem-` bers. They will automatically lift up and then automatically return to their operative positions to engage the garment and clamp it between the garment engaging members and the garment holding member I.

Another way of using the device consists in moving the garment engaging members to their inoperative positions, as shown on the left in Fig. 1, and then putting the garment on the garment holding member and then moving-the garment engaging members into engagement with the garment so as to clamp it in position.

When the construction shown in Figs. 6, '7 and 8 is used, the garment engaging members 5 may be moved to their inoperative positions, as shown in Fig. 7, and the garment engaging members moved back to their operative positions, as shown in Fig. 6.

It will be seen that by means of this construction, the garment can be easily and quickly placed in position and the garment engaging members will then hold it so that it will not fall oi of the garment hanger, but will be properly held thereon until it is released by the user. It will further be seen that the garment can be easily and quickly released by simply moving the garment engaging members. It will further be seen that the garment will not be injured or wrinkled or otherwise adversely affected by means of this construction.

I claim:

1. A garment hanger comprising a garment holding member, a garment engaging member which engages the garment and presses it toward the 'garment holding member, a support for the garment engaging member spaced away from the garment holding member, the garment engaging member being pivotally connected with said support, and a sliding member on said support and a connection between said sliding member and said garment engaging member, whereby the position of the garment engaging member may be controlled by sliding said sliding member along said support.

2. A garment hanger comprising a garment holding member, two garment engaging members which engage the garment and press it toward the garment holding member, a support for the garment'enga'ging members, extending along said garment holding member substantially parallel thereto and having its ends in proximity to the ends of said garment'l holding member and spaced away from the garment holding member and out of contact therewith throughout its entire length, the garment engaging members being pivotally connected with said support, and a spring elastically connecting each garment engaging member with the support.

3. A garment hanger comprising a garment holding member, a garment engaging member which engages the garment and Presses it toward the garment holding member, a hollow xed support xed with relation to said garment holding member, for the garment engaging member, extending along said garment holding member substantially parallel thereto and having its ends in proximity to the ends of said garment holding member and spaced away from the garment holding member, the garment engaging member being pivotally connected with said support, and means for holding said garment engaging member away from the garment holding member, so as to provide a free space between the garment engaging member and the garment holding mem ber while the garment is being placed in position.

4. A garment hanger comprising a garment holding member, a garment engaging member which engages the garment, an arm connected with said garment engaging member, a longitudinally extending xed support spaced away from the garment holding member, consisting of an elongated piece extending along the upper side of saidfgarment holding member and having its ends in proximity to the ends of said garment holding member, a pivotal connection between said arm CII middle for connecting it with said garment holding member and having a free end projecting on each side of said connecting means, a pivotal connection between said arm and said support and a spring device having one end connected with said arm and the other end with said support, for normally holding the garment engaging member in contact with the garment on the garment holding member, said anm and support having hollow ends, the ends of said spring device located in the hollow ends of said arm and support.

FRANK P. MIES. 

